1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns submersible vehicles. More specifically, a submersible vehicle that eliminates the compartments of ballast, and at the same time, has a horizontal displacement system and new direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Submersible vehicles are able to move under the water in general due to several systems: the system of immersion and stabilization, the system of impulsion or advance, and the system of direction. The first of these systems includes watertight compartments within the ship, which must fill or drain with the ballast that normally is water taken from the surroundings. Initially, the ship is floating in the surface with the empty ballast compartments, due to the Principle of Archimedes, that stipulates that all body in fluid suffers a towing traction force upwards, equal to the product of the specific weight of the fluid by the submerged volume. That is, to be in balance in the surface at the beginning, the gross weight of the ship is equal to the push. In order to overcome this push, the watertight compartments of the submersible are flooded with water, altering the balance, and submerging therefore the vehicle.
The compartments are properly distributed throughout the submersible, so that once the wished depth is reached, the ballast can be pumped from one to another, in order to obtain the necessary stability (For example, the ballast water is pumped from the prow compartment to the aft compartment to recover the horizontal position at the end of the immersion).
Nowadays, the operations oriented to obtain the stability of the ship take place automatically, using level sensors that transfer ballast among compartments according to the way the requirements of the operation of the ship appear.
In addition, the current vehicles have stabilizing planes that install transversal to the flanks of the ship, which contribute to stabilize because they can turn in an angle around its axis.
In order to emerge, as it is logical, it is necessary to expel the ballast from the watertight compartments, in order to recover the buoyancy of the vehicle. This is obtained using pressured air, with which the water is expelled outside from the ballast, with the consequent consumption of energy since it is necessary to push the exterior pressure. This consumption of energy is high if it is considered that the pressure to a meter of depth is of 1000 kg/m2, and it increases in 1000 kg every meter downwards.
The system of impulsion or advance of the ship is made of one or more outer helices located in the stern of the vehicle, which receive the movement of the power plant located within the boat.
The direction system includes a rudder similar to one of the boats of surface and in smaller vehicles, helices of position and variable speed that directs the trajectory of the submersible.
The invention, here proposed, simplifies the design of the current vehicles of immersion when it eliminates the compartments of ballast proposing a horizontal displacement system and new direction.
It is an application of the principle of sustentation of the wing of an airplane used in an inverse way to obtain the immersion of a submersible vehicle. The vehicle is designed so that in rest, it floats in balance on the water surface, forcing its immersion as it is explained: The water current generated by a water pump is directed towards a circular wing through a duct also circular.
The circular wing has in cut the shape of the wing of an airplane, but it is installed in an inverse position, so that instead of generating a force upwards, it generates a force downwards. The circular wing is segmented in four movable sections that can turn around a circular unitary axis, as hinges, in order to modify the angle of attack respect to the water flow received from the circular duct. This hinge movement is synchronous or independent for the four sections, according to the necessities of stability of the vehicle.
The horizontal movement is generated, taking pressured water after the propelling from the water pump, and leading it towards the four nozzles located to 90xc2x0 in the outer part of the vehicle. Before each nozzle, an electromagnetic valve is placed with which the flow is regulated to be expelled by the nozzle.
A synchronous control of the four valves commanded by the pilot of the vehicle allows obtaining diverse combinations of impulse in the four nozzles, obtaining therefore a horizontal displacement in any direction.
When it is desired to emerge, it will be enough to stop the pump, with which, the force, that forces the vehicle to descend, will disappear, recovering its initial buoyancy. If it is desired to emerge quickly, the pump should be kept working, but a negative angle of attack will occur to the four sections of the circular wing, that is below the flow plane originated in the circular duct, obtaining therefore an additional ascending force.
Under the cockpit, the vehicle has one double circular cover, to allow a free water passing towards the suction of the pump and protecting the action from the pressured water on the circular wing, of the opposite effect generated by the horizontal displacement of the vehicle and by any current that could be present in the surroundings. The water is directed by the cover towards the bottom of the vehicle.
As it is evident, in case of any type of error, the vehicle will automatically rise to the surface, contributing therefore a remarkable new factor of safety in immersion vehicles.